Maybe A League of Their Own was doomed to strike out. A ardour challenge in all senses of the phrase, it was a reboot hell-bent on showing the queer lives within the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League that by no means made it into the 1992 film. More succinctly, it was the type of reimagining (long-form, prestige-y, tapping into an present area of interest fanbase) that usually solely will get a shot due to a deep-pocketed streamer. It obtained to play one season. Last spring, Amazon Prime Video renewed it for a truncated second one. Last Friday, that plug obtained pulled; Amazon pointed the finger on the ongoing writers’ and actors’ strikes.

Abbi Jacobson, the Broad City star who co-created the collection, hit Instagram to say that blaming the cancelation on the strikes was “bullshit and cowardly,” however the reality stays: The present’s life on Prime Video is over. Amazon also canceled the second season of the William Gibson adaptation The Peripheral, regardless of having renewed it again in February. Hollywood is a ruthless enterprise, regardless of which community or streamer a present calls dwelling.

When the world appears again in, say, 30 years, the halcyon days of streaming can be regarded upon as optimistic and fleeting—a time when Silicon Valley largesse meant Amazon would drop tons of of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} on the Tolkien adaptation Rings of Power and Netflix would back money trucks up to Shonda Rhimes’ home so she might develop Bridgerton. In all probability, these sorts of offers will nonetheless exist in 2053, however as competitors within the streaming area will get tighter, the moonshot initiatives will doubtless be fewer and the emphasis on return-on-investment will solely enhance.

This writing has been on the wall for some time, however obtained strengthened this week when The Hollywood Reporter pointed out that streamers are more and more guiding customers to ad-supported variations of their providers, largely by rising the price of their ad-free tiers. Earlier this month, Disney introduced that the fee per thirty days of Disney+ and Hulu can be going up three bucks. Paramount+ swapped its $10 ad-free plan for a $12 one that features Showtime. Netflix presents a $7/month ad-backed plan and a premium one which prices greater than $15. Peacock, in July, upped the worth of its ad-supported model by one greenback and its ad-free iteration by two.

As long foretold, this all simply looks as if streaming changing into the brand new cable TV. Now that there are extra streaming providers than there was community tv stations, individuals are making an attempt to economize on all these subscriptions. If adverts assist them try this, so be it.

The Monitor is a weekly column dedicated to the whole lot taking place within the WIRED world of tradition, from films to memes, TV to Twitter.